I have 2 kids who have attended Aleph Academy--including one who has just graduated--for a total of about 5 years. I'm grateful to this school for providing a warm, enriching environment for both kids. It's the kind of place where you can trust that your kids will have a good day both in terms of socialization and learning.
The teachers are amazing, flat-out. We have seen how much they put into thoughtful curriculum and community. The teachers have different skills and strengths -- for instance, the teacher of the oldest pre-K class has a strong background in natural sciences and weaves that into lesson plans, and one of the other teachers is super nurturing and appears to be the designated patient "holder and comforter" of the super young kids when some inevitably cry after dropoff (in a way that I would want somebody to comfort my kid if it had been my kid).
Part of what we like about the school is that all the teachers do get to know all the students, which makes "going up a grade" transitions easy both in terms of knowing the new teacher as well as still having ties to a beloved former teacher.
There has been some teacher turnover through our tenure so far as an Aleph family, but it's overall been OK and we understand that sometimes teachers move on to different opportunities. Do we wish they were paid way more? Yes, but I also do know that underpayment of early childhood educators is a societal, structural issue. Parents also have the chance every year during Chanukah to show their teacher appreciation financially if they are able.
Sarah, the director of the school, is really organized and communicates well with parents -- I've always felt I could reach out to her if needed on any matter. The food is excellent, and many times we have had to hear from our kids at home that Chef Lisa's version of something or other is better, even though my husband and I are no slouches in the cooking department. (Also, one of my children has severe food allergies requiring an epi-pen prescription, and I have always been confident that the staff took that seriously. It helps that the kosher menu means they are inherently quite careful about ingredients and outside food, which I like even though our family is not Jewish.) The physical building and outdoor space fosters creativity -- think tree fort and edible plants to learn about gardens -- and is a comfortable place for the kids to play. In pre-COVID pickup times, our kids would often want to keep playing in the schoolyard in the late afternoon.
I'm just another Aleph parent so I cannot speak to the specifics of the experience of the other recent reviewer (May 2020) whose child must have just begun attending the Teva (outdoor) class when COVID unfortunately shut down everyone in the spring. I have not met this other parent. All I can say is, I observed a lot of preschools and daycares doing the best they could under pretty gnarly circumstances, given that there are still rent payments and utilities payments and insurance payments. In other words, many fixed costs go into running a preschool, and it's reasonable to assume that if everyone had been refunded in full for all of the days they could not attend in person, the financial situation of the school would be unviable. The situation blew, but I hardly think it was unethical for the school to not refund all closure days immediately. The school applied for the PPP and, to my understanding, was able to keep up with teacher salaries after they received those funds. Tuition was not charged for May 2020. (And, whoa, "I get we're all Jews and want our money" is a shocking comment that deserves repudiation. I get being angry at the situation, but in a world full of anti-Semitism that literally drives the need for Aleph's strict entry security measures, this is grossly uncalled for and discredits the reviewer.) read more
